Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1887-08-31
Venice In Summer.

sand unpleasantnesses of living in other
cities, the toll and worry or travel are
forgotten; the sea breeze from the Lido
comes bland and soothing; the silence
OF the watery ways falls like a healing
balm on the hurts of the fretful mind
and last, If not least, the idle Condo
llers. lolling in scores about the trog-
hetti and scale, start at the sight OF
forestiero like the ghosts in Purgatory
when Dante threw his shadow across
them. The churches have no chill and
the Academia is refreshing lounge in
the afternoons; the early morning in
very summers dream, and when you
have passed the few midday hours you
go out on the canals and paddle about
until dinner time in temperature that
is perfectly elysian; and after dinner,
in supreme carelessnesS of wraps or
chills, you return to the gOndola or
walk the piazza, when the band plays,
or sit before Flonan's or the QuadrI
and eat ices under the quiet stars with
no apprehension of dewS or showers as
far into the small hours as you please.
Only then can one know what true
out-of-door life is-not the prairie or
the forest, the tent or the blvouac.
though these have their charms, but the
blue summer sky overhead, the tran
gull sea all around, with all the resOur-
ces of civic condition at call. If the
market Is poor for the fisherman and
the gardeners 1t IS abundant for you,
and their loss is your gain. Meat is a
superfluity, the appetite rejects 1t, and
one becomes almost a vegetarian from
taste You dress III flannel or linen;
those WHO can sleep after lunch go TO
bed for two or three hours of the after
nd in II n
straw or palm leaf hat and white UNI
trella, betake themselves to the library,
the gallery, the churches, or take the
steamer for the Lido, where the most
glorious beach of hard, clean sand
which one can find gives such bathing
ground as no city in Europe or America
can offer so near at hand.
This is the Fenetian's own resort,
not provision for the foreStlero, and
II IS his chief luXury-admirably well
arranged as to bathing facilities, with
no perplexities as to high or low tide,
for the sea is always ready for the
Oather-almost tideless, quite free from
undertOw or dangerous current. If
you like the water cool and bracing
you take your bath early; If you fancy
1t milder you take it in the afternoon,
stay in till the sunset, and, dining at
the Lido restaurant, take gOndola
lack IN the evening and enjoy the night
| approach to Venice, with the glancIug
| lights across the water and the music
| from the band in the piazza floating
| down on the reflections, and overhead
| always the clOudlesS sky and the stars.
| Not for one hour after nightfall since /
have been here has the sky been over
| cast Recently furious sirocco blew.
up the Adriatlc. the surf ran high al
| the Lido, and the water in the Grand
Canal Game almost up To the level Of
| the PlaZZa, but the wind was not hot as
at Naples aud Rome, and as it filed the
lagOOnS with fresh water from the
deep outside the air was cool and the
evening most delectable. And even ii
you Should, from excess of cOnStitu-
| tional caloric find the day too hot, the
night IS irreprOachaDle, and not to De
known except in the ripe summer. We
nice is very cold at times; in winter |
have known the water and milk boats
to be frozen up In the canals that lead
10 the mainland, and when, after the
winter Is gone, the visitor goes from
The warm air of the early spring sun
Shine into a church or gallery. the
stOI ed-up cold of all winter enyelOps
him like sudden Arctic day; now til.
warmth has penetrated the churches
and palaces and there is only the slight
and grateful GOODNESS of shade.
Measured merely by the standard of
physical comfort, L find the balance
immensely IN favor of summer visit
to Venice rather than in any other sea-
son. People of p!ethoric habit or very
vigorous circulation might find it un-
comfortably warm to-day, but to me 1t
is quite perfect. | have no thermom-
eter, but judge it to be about 20 de-
grees Fahrenheit, nor have l seen 1t
much warmer since 1 came. Verona
was an oven compared TO 1t. and Rome
during the day several degrees hotter.
But what is of more Importance to a
true traveller Is that in summer Venice
is the Venice of the Nenetians, in win
ter of strangers. Now one sees the
city in its everyday habits, for the few
| fOrestieri here are naturallZed and IA
miliar. The festivities which in winter
| are got up attractions TO the outsider
are in summer spontaneous. The sere-
nades on the Grand Canal, the Illum-
nations, etc., are of a different spirit
and far more festive. Recently we
| had a serenade in honor of the kings
| visit. There was the usual huge gal
! leggiante with its orchestral fittings,
simply floating orchestra hung with
hundreds of coiored lamps and towed
! by two or three large galleys, and with
the crowd of gondolas which everybody
knows who has seen one in winter, only
that now the gondolas are an immense
fleet filling the canal as We, near the
galleggiante, could see. Except the
people in the windows and on the
banks. one would have said all Venice
was in the boats, gondolas, skiffs. gal
leys, high and low, which began from
nightfall TO gather at the Fondaco del
TuTchi. and by the time the galleggiante
started a compact mass of craft, on
which one might have stepped from
boat to boat across the canal, moved
with it, and 1t was as if the palaces on
both sides were slipping past US lying
still In the palace windows, in the
deep pOrticos and on the balconies, the
people burned Bengal lights as we went
by, and at the head of the fleet a many
cared galley, with Bengal light be-
tween each pair of oars, rowed in zig
gag, advanced before us. The innum-
cradle twinkling lights on the gondolas
and the forest of steel prows rejecting
the glare of the fireworks, with the
army Of gondoliers In white or light
colors erect on their craft. the glamour
of light and shade and color of the fire.
works, the murmur of the incessant
humping of the boats together as they
tloated along en- masse, dominated by
the chorus of voices OF the strains OF
orchestral music, altogether made a
mise-en-scene quite fairy-like in it:
beatty and its Illusion.
Maine has One-legged bicyclist.